Mandolin Village would have provided 66 units of affordable housing for flood victims in Lyons, Colorado. It was a joint venture between the Boulder County Housing Authority (BCHA) and Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley. Lyons was at the epicenter of the September 2013 floods that caused $4 billion in damages to the state and destroyed 200 homes (about a fifth of its housing stock) in Lyons alone. The compact, 5 acre site plan for Mandolin Village contained a mix of single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, fiveplexes, sixplexes and a community space. The site design resembles the shape of a mandolin and would have provided excellent views to the iconic Steamboat Mountain. Sadly, the measure to approve the use of park land for the much-needed development was defeated in March 2015.

WORKSHOP8 provided site planning, schematic housing design, branding and identity design, and community engagement support services. We were fortunate to work with our trusted consultant JVA on the project and also worked with first time teammates, DHM, Millender White, Trestle Strategy Group, Urban Oasis, and Place/Matters.

The scope of work included intensive community outreach and WORKSHOP8 incorporated several successful community engagement design tools including low-tech, high-touch exercises such as the hand crafted wish wall, interactive site plan map, mix-and match materials cards, and architectural style cards in addition to technology based exercises such as fly-through 3-D modeling and live electronic polling. WORKSHOP8 also developed several stakeholder questionnaires which were implemented to gain community input into architectural styles and amenities. All of the community input was funneled into the schematic design of the buildings and the preliminary site plan. WORKSHOP8 staff really leaned into the project and pulled extra hours to complete the entire outreach and schematic design process in just two months time.